Enchanting Advice

Pritzl · Post by **Pritzl** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 3:40 am

So I'm finally about to enchant my first item, an elven bow. Unfortunately, my magicka is still quite low so I can't go overboard just yet.

Anyway, my questions are:

1. What are the some of the values listed in the enchanting scroll? In particular the first value and it's bracketed counterpart as well as the second value with the "i" next to it. What do they mean?

2. I'm considering a triple elemental damage (fire+frost+shock) of 3 pts for 5 seconds each (15+15+15). (a) is this a good idea? and (b) this makes the first pair of numbers come out to 45(60) and I'm not sure what that means... Am I trying to maximize those values so that it's 60(60)?

3. Weakness to elemental damage only works on subsequent strikes correct? So I'm guessing that's probably better for melee weapons. Is it cumulative too?

4. I have only a few filled soul gems, and most are lower quality souls. (haven't captured any of my own yet) Should I hold off on enchanting until I have more higher level souls?

Matthias · Post by **Matthias** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 4:04 am

I'm not at home right now so don't remember exactly what the enchanting screen looks like. But...

1) Your magicka has nothing to do with it. You don't use it to enchant something and you don't use it when you use an enchanted item.

2) Yes, you should wait until you have a bigger soul. That is what powers the enchantment and determines how powerful of a one it can be. If you think you're going to be getting a new weapon soon or you have duplicates then hey, you may as well enchant now with what you have. And make a bigger enchantment later.

3) It is a good idea to wrap together different types of damage since you get more bang for your buck that way. It takes less of a charge to do 15 pts of shock, 15 pts of fire, and 15 pts of cold than it does to do 45 pts of any one of them singly.

4) Weakness to elemental damage I believe only works on subsequent strikes. It might work on the same one, but I don't think so. And weakness to elemental damage is not stackable, but weakness to magic is. There's something here on the Wiki about it. But I wouldn't get overly concerned about it.

Now that I think about, it the # (#) might be the charge used with each strike and the total charge held by the weapon, so if it said 60 (240) it might mean each strike uses 60 points and you can use it four times before it's spent. But I'm not sure offhand. Been a long day.

Here's the Wiki entry on enchanting: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Enchanting

Pritzl · Post by **Pritzl** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 5:10 am

Much appreciated Matthias. I have been over the Wiki, several times but those particular questions were not addressed.

I did figure out the #(#) though. The first is the magicka charge cost per strike, and the one in brackets is the maximum charge per strike available with the currently selected soul gem. Similarly, the "i" number is actually the total number of strikes on a single charge. (Total charge/cost per strike)

I'm also reconsidering the frost damage part of the equation as so many enemies have resistance to it and going with fire/shock damage for now.

Still your input was helpful in getting the ball rolling, so thanks...

Pritzl · Post by **Pritzl** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 5:42 pm

One more question, how effective is "Damage Magicka"? Is it more effective to enchant a weapon with Drain intelligence instead? Basically, I'm going to tone down the elemental damage in favour of at least partially weakening magical foes. I can deal with melee/archer combatants fine, it's the bloody ones that go invisible, summon creatures or whatnot that get to me. i.e., I want to have a "Bow of Debilitation" that has some elemental damage + quite a bit of Damage magicka (currently looking at 3x13=39pts) to incapacitate/hinder a tough enemy's magic. Will it work? The Wiki is a bit confusing on the drain vs damage and skill vs attribute part. Some seem to not apply to NPCs, some apply but in a different way, etc...

Pritzl · Post by **Pritzl** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 5:48 pm

ACK! Yet another question: Does your skill level in the relevant school of magic increase the potency/decrease the price of enchanting? i.e. if I raise my destruction level can I create a better enchantment given the same parameters? If the answer is yes, do skill increases after the enchanting process is over retroactively improve things?

Belthazor · Post by **Belthazor** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 6:29 pm

I would use a Silence effect instead of Damage Magicka. That makes it impossible for the victim to cast a spell.

About your second question: Your enchantments won't get better if you increase your skill in destruction. Your skill is only important in that you need to be able to cast a spell with the effect you want as an enchantment.

Pritzl · Post by **Pritzl** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 6:51 am

I hadn't considered silence. Yeah, that would probably be much more effective. Thanks...

avewill · Post by **avewill** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 8:55 pm

Also, since you swing your sword about once per second (just a tad slower) you'll want to keep your elemental damage to one-second effects. Otherwise, subsequent swings just replace the DoT and you end up spending too much charge on a 5 dmg/sec dot.

Get your weakness to magika/element spells to 2 seconds (unless you're enchanting a dagger, in which case use 1 sec), and keep your elemental damage to one-second effects.

The classic power build seems to be something like

Shock damage: X for 1 sec
Fire damage: X for 1 sec
Frost damage: X for 1 sec
Weakness to shock: 100% for 2 sec
Weakness to fire: 100% for 2 sec
Weakness to frost: 100% for 2 sec
Weakness to majicka: 100% for 2 sec

I have a dagger I enchanted like that and it just slaughters everything... it uses up lots of souls though.

Oh, and the soul-level you use determines both the max impact and the number of charges.